Acupuncture for Community : NADA protocol treatments in Australia

24/01/2025

Thank you Tabitha Lean - Foundational provocations for those of us in allied, complimentary and so-called "alternative" health care settings to chew on as well. Engaging with and addressing the ways power, punishment and harm is enacted in our attitudes, language, the doing of therapeutic relationships and response structures is key to creating and delivering whole-person-centred, culturally safer, therapeutically useful, health care grounded in dignity and respect that is ultimately transformative and healing for *all* involved.

Sharing over from LinkedIn post by Tabitha Lean, Prisoner Activist Freelance Story Teller, Writer and Poet : Continuing with the theme of talking about carceral logics, today I’m talking about how those logics play out in health care settings.

Reflecting on our practice and language, helps us move towards an abolitionist future."

Sisters Inside Inc

02/01/2025

Community drop-in will be back **Wednesday 5 February at 6.30pm** offering non-judgemental harm reduction and trauma support.

Find us at The Settlement neighbourhood centre, 17 Edward St. Redfern on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month. Everyone is welcome in their wholeness*

04/12/2024

Love this - originally seen on the NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA) page

Stigmavir isn’t real, but HIV stigma in health care is. This film is part of Casey House’s ongoing campaign, which is dedicated to taking down H...

02/12/2024

Assisting clients and staff to soften stress, experience calm and be more present in their bodies by integrating simple, wholistic health practices into frontline services has the potential to enhance service capacity for people impacted by domestic and family violence, leading to sustained, life-changing outcomes for people in crisis.

Respect and gratitude to Women’s & Girls’ Emergency Centre WAGEC CEO, Nicole Yade for creating the opportunity to present the benefits of sharing ear acupressure skills with both women in refuge and support workers; alongside Brianna Attard and Beth Eager as part of the in-house (w)holistic health and well-being program for women in refuge at the 2024 USyd Law School Conference highlighting impacts and responding to family and domestic violence.

Also, a big shout out for Manda Rochester's presentation of WAGEC's specialist support program for children and young people whose lives have been impacted by homelessness and/or violence.

Acupuncture for Community Inc. is open to community collaborations and health justice partnerships. We are also seeking support with data collection. Please get in touch!

10/10/2024

05/10/2024

Another big shout out to OnPoint NYC for their FREE (w)holistic healthcare program featuring the 5NP/NADA ear acupuncture protocol for mental health and harm reduction support. All treatments delivered with love, dignity, respect and no judgement.

As we close , we highlight our free services to the community that can treat pain in healthy ways - from medical care at our clinic to holistic services like acupuncture and energy healing. View our schedule here. Photo by Sarah Duggan / Drug Policy Alliance. bit.ly/3MgyzjN

05/10/2024

Shout out to our international 5NP/NADA* ear acupuncture protocol family members gathering for the 2024 NADA GB conference coming up in 2 weeks.

"Unimagined Bridges" this year's conference theme inevitably evokes the late (and very great) Laura Cooley "...a dynamic force on the front line of disaster relief from 9/11 to Katrina to the Gulf Oil Spill (2010). As a chronicler, Laura was the Director and Producer of Unimagined Bridges, a film addressing the efficacy of ear acupuncture for disaster/trauma relief in the aftermath of 9/11, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita..." Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7NzqB7p3s

"...During her career, Laura trained more than 800 professionals in the NADA 5-point ear acupuncture protocol. From Vermont and Quebec to Texas and Louisiana she supervised programs that utilized ear acupuncture in drug treatment programs, jails, hospitals, homeless and HIV outreach programs..." Laura was also a generous and supportive member of our international solidarity team encouraging and supporting the establishment of Acupuncture for Community : NADA protocol treatments in Australia

** text quoted: Whitney Thorniley 02/04/24 (POCA Tech : People's Organisation of Community Acupuncture)

* 5 Needle Protocol aka NADA assists with alcohol and substance use dependencies; mental-emotional trauma; mental and behavioural health struggles; lived experience of violence; chronic pain; community responses to disaster and crisis as well as improving consequences of adjuvant hormonal treatments for breast cancer in the UK, including frequency of hot flushes and night sweats as well as menopausal health–related quality.

01/10/2024

The "Spirit of NADA*" calls upon us to use acupuncture in service and solidarity with community-led responses to social injustices and harms.

Humbled and honoured to be in collaborative partnership with Women’s & Girls’ Emergency Centre WAGEC sharing ear acupressure techniques for self-care alongside group treatment sessions as part of a rich, in-house (w)holistic health and wellness empowerment framework. A shout out in return to WAGEC's Jiuli Qu, Nicole Yade, Carol Coorey, all the women (clients and staff) who've been holding the weekly space together with me, making each session a fun and unique mutual exchange.

(For those unfamiliar - the intentionally simple, ear-based protocols used in Acupuncture for Community Inc. activities is known as The NADA Protocol or 5NP - 5 needle protocol. Honouring this ongoing legacy nourishes and directs the ethics, energy and *doing* of the collective care work, healthcare advocacy and NADA trainings we are currently consolidating).

Learn more about WAGEC here : https://www.wagec.org.au/

21/09/2024

"...Access to free and secure calls will improve and literally save lives..." Backing and amplifying posts by Tina McPhee (Lived Experience Criminologist, PhD Candidate, Abolitionist & Language Matters Campaigner) and The Greens' petition to trigger a debate in Parliament demanding free and secure phone calls be made an essential service inside prisons.

This is a social justice, mental, spiritual and physical health issue. An equity and class issue. A human rights issue. "...Some families are forking out hundreds of dollars each week to stay connected to their loved ones on the inside, to provide them the support they need to get through their time..."they facilitate access to justice (incarcerated folks can call their lawyer for important information about upcoming court appearances, prison visits, and parole representations)..."

While prisons continue to exist, phone calls for incarcerated people need to be free and secure.

https://www.suehigginson.org/inmate_free_calls

Tina McPhee "Phone calls are an essential service in prisons -
they connect parents and children (sometimes these regular calls are court ordered), they let loved ones know that we’re are okay (this was my parents biggest fear), and they facilitate access to justice services (incarcerated folks can call their lawyer for important information about upcoming court appearances, prison visits, and parole representations). And the same structural equity issues that exist in community exist in prisons but they’re magnified, meaning those most impacted by poverty, are most likely to face significant barriers to making a phone call to someone who is important in their life. Which is a preposterous state of affairs given the state chose to remove people from community, forced them to remain behind bars, stripped away their resources and severed their connections with community members. I don’t give a single toss about what that might cost me as a tax payer - if we’re hell bent on relying on prisons to solve social issues then it’s the states responsibility to make sure everyone we lock up can make a simple bloody phone call - surely it’s not even an argument? 🤷🏼‍♀️.."

We all deserve the right to connect to our loved ones

15/09/2024

🌱 LOOK: STRENGTHENING RESEARCH ON NADA 🌿

NADA Chairperson/Founder Janet Paredes, Board Member Romeo "Jun" Balderrama, and Program Manager Rey Reyes met with PITAHC Director-General Dr. Ma. Teresa C. Iñigo today to discuss areas for potential research and partnership. Also included in the meeting is Mr. Tok Corpus from the Shelter from the Storm Addiction Rehabilitation center and Supervising Science Research Specialist Ms. Merva Crisostomo from PITAHC.

This is in line with PITAHC's overarching agenda of strengthening research in Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine (TCIM) and DG Inigo's expression of support for strengthening research on the NADA Protocol during the 8th NADA Forum. NADA Philippines is looking forward in contributing to evidence-based research in TCIM.

NADA Philippines has also renewed its accreditation as a Traditional and Alternative Health Care (TAHC) organization up until 2027.

14/09/2024

Sharing in solidarity, the call to take a closer, critical look before celebrating carceral solutions described as wellbeing, care and/or therapeutic units.

As healthcare practitioners - as other Australians, we must listen to First Nation communities, community-controlled frontline services, and experience-led experts like The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls who say no to all forms of criminalisation and/or incarceration of children.

Quoting Sisters Inside Inc "...Let's be clear: we are talking about children in prisons. The use of softer terminology shields the reality that these facilities function like adult prisons, subjecting children to environments of violence and harm..."

13/09/2024

Reposting from Tabvuma Mental Health - Every day is a day to check in